Our Garden Editor reflects on the particular beauty of gardens in winter

Andrew Montgomery

Gardens in winter have a particular beauty, a quietness and a serenity that sometimes you have to work at to understand. The slide into winter can be depressing. Many people feel a real sense of seasonal loss as plants start to die back in autumn, and if all they see is death and decay, then it’s no wonder they want to turn their back on the garden for a few months each year. What Andrew and I wanted to do in this book is to challenge this notion – to open people’s eyes to the beauty that can be found in nature and in our gardens at this time of year, and to present this in a large-format, luxurious book that you can get lost in.

I have found working on the book a complete revelation as it has taught me to tune in to the full seasonal cycle of nature, rather than shutting it out and ignoring it. Slowing yourself down to really look at the detail of the garden and of the plants themselves is part of the process, as Dan Pearson highlights in his foreword to the book: ‘With growth slowed, and time with it, the dark months allow us the opportunity to reflect. There is time to think, without the need to necessarily do, and time to look at the bones of the garden without the demand – and indeed, the distraction – of the growing season…. If you plant and plan for winter, the garden becomes a place that is constantly shifting, offering seasons within a season; you can observe the falling away and then the gentle gathering that replaces it, marking a shift in time.’

MAY WE SUGGEST: The enchanting autumn landscape of Piet Oudolf's garden at Hauser & Wirth Somerset

The book contains twelve very different gardens, all with elements that make them stand out in winter. Topiary gardens, as you might expect, feature strongly, from the traditional formality of Mapperton House in Dorset to the contemporary elegance of the Walled Garden at Broughton House in Oxfordshire, by Tom Stuart-Smith. Piet Oudolf, king of the New Perennial planting style, is photographed surveying his wonderful garden at Hummelo in the Netherlands. Perhaps more than anyone else, Piet has opened our eyes to the beauty of seed heads, urging us to think about the full lifecycle of a plant rather than just its flowering prime: ‘Many gardeners see the dead and dying stems of perennials at the end of the year as rubbish to clear away. Plants can be beautiful in death as well as life, however.’ Dan Pearson’s garden, Hillside in Somerset, is also featured in the book, with beautiful images capturing an intricate tapestry of grasses and seed heads. ‘The new transparency and change of scale that the deciduous skeletons bring is arguably more beautiful than the opacity of a growing season,’ writes Dan.